Feel Air : The Latest Entrant to Low Cost Long Haul Battle

Glooming economic situation or recession does not appear to be strong enough to stop new startups from being launched, one such is Feel Air.

Feel Air is a new low cost long-haul startup that plans to launch operations from Scandinavia.

The airline will begin operations in early 2010 with two dry leased Airbus A330-200 aircraft. The aircraft will have 40 premium economy and 264 economy seats each with 38in and 34in seat pitch respectively. It will base the aircraft at Oslo and Stockholm Arlanda.

Feel Air will begin operations with flights to New York JFK and Bangkok Suvarnabhumi from both Oslo and Stockholm. They will not launch any new destinations till they make a sound presence on this route.

The airline plans to utilize its aircraft at 16.7hrs per day. They have opted not to begin operations with the already crowded Copenhagen airport but have opted to launch operations to JFK considering the local connectivity.

The company will begin operations with 160 employees and a share capital of NOK 240 million. The company will be led by Kai Holmberg and Otto Lagarhus. The airline expects to follow AirAsia X’s model.

In an economical perspective, this might seem as a gamble. Scandinavia will have a good demand from both of Feel’s destinations, but they will face a good competition as well. Thai Airways, currently the only operator on the BKK-OSL route, had just announced increase of the route to daily from Winter. Overall, the route selection and fleet choice seems to be good. But there is a good chance they will face many barriers and stiff competition from the incumbent operators. However Feel Air will have a great advantage since it will be the first European low cost long haul airline. They also expects to become cash positive by 2011.

Too ambitious ? Time will tell.